If you believe in God, you have chosen to reject Allah, Vishnu, Budda, Waheguru and all of the thousands of other gods that other people worship today. It is quite likely that you rejected these other gods without ever looking into their religions or reading their books. You simply absorbed the dominant faith in your home or in the society you grew up in.

In the same way, the followers of all these other religions have chosen to reject God. You think their gods are imaginary, and they think your God is imaginary.

In other words, each religious person on earth today arbitrarily rejects thousands of gods as imaginary, many of which he/she has never even heard of, and arbitrarily chooses to "believe" in one of them.

The following quote from Stephen F. Roberts sums up the situation very nicely:

Quote:

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."

A rational person rejects all human gods equally, because all of them are equally imaginary.

How do we know that they are imaginary? Simply imagine that one of them is real.

If one of these thousands of gods were actually real, then his followers would be experiencing real, undeniable benefits. These benefits would be obvious to everyone. The followers of a true god would pray, and their prayers would be answered. The followers of a true god would therefore live longer, have fewer diseases, have lots more money, etc.

There would be thousands of statistical markers surrounding the followers of a true god.

Everyone would notice all of these benefits, and they would gravitate toward this true god. And thus, over the course of several centuries, everyone would be aligned on the one true god. All the other false gods would have fallen by the wayside long ago, and there would be only one religion under the one true god.

When we look at our world today, we see nothing like that. There are two billion Christians AND there are more than one billion Muslims, and their religions are mutually exclusive. There are thousands of other religions. When you analyze any of them, they all show a remarkable similarity -- there is zero evidence that any of these gods exist.

uh, ya they did...Herod, Caaipphus etc were not prophets....and Christ himself foretold that the temple would be torn down.

Not only do Muslims not believe that Christ was the Son of God, they don't believe you can even have a relationship with God.

and this takes me back to my first point to whoman69...that banner is going to be front and center for peace and security.

No, not really. Isaiah, Micah, Zechariah, etc. were all Jews, they aren't ignored they were Jews. Jesus predicting the temple would be torn down wasn't really much of a prediction, given what was going on in Israel at the time. Muslims do not believe that Christ was the son of God, which doesn't mean anything with regard to what I said, but they do believe you can have a relationship with God:

Quote:

I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assemble better than it. And if he draws near to Me an armís length, I draw near to him a fathomís length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed.

No, not really. Isaiah, Micah, Zechariah, etc. were all Jews, they aren't ignored they were Jews. Jesus predicting the temple would be torn down wasn't really much of a prediction, given what was going on in Israel at the time. Muslims do not believe that Christ was the son of God, which doesn't mean anything with regard to what I said, but they do believe you can have a relationship with God:

the Jews in Jesus' time chose to ignore that prophecy being fulfilled was at hand...they saw him as nothing more than a blasphemer, a false prophet, and someone who was gaing traction among their people., and understandably, felt that upheaval would put them in danger under Roman rule.

He not only foretold of the destruction, he even gave the detail that no stone would be standing...you can marginalize it all you want.

muslims do not believe in a personal relationship with God, to claim so would be as dangerous as what Christ procliamed.

the Jews in Jesus' time chose to ignore that prophecy being fulfilled was at hand...they saw him as nothing more than a blasphemer, a false prophet, and someone who was gaing traction among their people., and understandably, felt that upheaval would put them in danger under Roman rule.

He not only foretold of the destruction, he even gave the detail that no stone would be standing...you can marginalize it all you want.

muslims do not believe in a personal relationship with God, to claim so would be as dangerous as what Christ procliamed.

They didn't ignore the prophecies. They simply didn't, and don't, recognize Jesus as fulfilling them.

Destroyed is destroyed, if you want to seize on "the detail that no stone would be standing", even though a stone was left standing when the Romans destroyed it, be my guest.

Muslims can and do have a personal relationship with god. You're simply wrong about that.

he does a great job mowing the lawn, but his work with a weed-eater leaves a bit to be desired... he must be preoccupied by the orange sales by the side of the road that his brother james is working on, or trying to figure out how his wife is going to get picked up from her maid's job.

Jesus was Jewish. His followers split off to form their own church. They both believe in Jehovah, the one true God.

Muslims believe that when God asked Abraham to sacrifice one of his sons that it was Ishmael who was to be sacrificed while the Jews believe it was Isaac. God at the last minute told Abraham to sacrifice a goat instead. The Muslims believe that Abraham then went to Saudi Arabia with Ishmael where they remade the Kabah, the holiest artifact in Islam. Ishmael became first of the Arab race. The Jews believe Abraham went with Isaac to found the nation of Israel. Islam does not mention what happened to Isaac.

Despite the fact that they believe different things, they are all worshiping the same monotheistic God, whether he is called Jehovah, God or Allah.

__________________
-Watching Eddie Podolak

Quote:

Originally posted by Logical
When the boobs are a bouncin, the Chiefs will be trouncin

What the Raiders fan has said is true, our customs are different. What Al Davis has said is unimportant, and we do not hear his words.

Im always interested in these threads. I was raised Episcopalian and changed to Methodist when i got married and have been through a cursillo in the Catholic church in the Peoria illinois area.

It always amazes me how non believers seem so loud in their claims of disbelief and those who do have faith seem so confident in faith that we just listen to them. My faith strenghthened with birth of my son and continues to grow over time

We Methodists in my community have those crazy Catholics next door and on occasion we use each others parking lots. Across the road are Lutherans but they dont use our parking lot. Any thought of a fatwa against either of them is usually wiped out. When we plan a dinner, the mens ham and bean supper or the catholics having a chili supper

Christians of all faiths seem to get along. We even accept jews, Mormans, and baptists (they cook some kick ass stuff). Why do muslims seem more prone to kill their own who are in different tribes?